<nettime> Dutch coup d'état in art and culture -- Appeal for response!

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Dutch coup d'état in art and culture
Appeal for response!

www.dezaaknu.nl
www.schadekaart.nl

Last week in a memorandum titled "More than Quality," the State  
Secretary for Culture, acting on behalf of the Dutch government (a  
minority government of liberals and Christian Democrats, whose hold on  
power relies on the support of Geert Wilders's anti-Islam Freedom  
Party (PVV)) announced his new "vision" for the field of culture,  
which represents nothing less than a violent and sweeping political  
manoeuvre aimed at the very notion of culture and art, its role in  
society, and its place within the democratic sphere. With the  
exception of but a handful of "top international institutions" that  
will be spared, the entire field of internationally focused and future- 
oriented artistic experimentation, innovation, education, and  
development, which has distinguished the Netherlands and given it a  
leading international position in the field for many decades, is to be  
demolished practically overnight. Instead of preserving the values of  
experimentation, risk, and vision, the memorandum leaves us with  
rhetoric about "strengthening the responsibility and resilience of  
citizens" and letting "the market" take its "natural" course.

To be clear: Dutch professionals in the field of art and culture are  
aware of the fact that some cuts in funding are necessary given  
today's economic situation and that a recalibration of support may be  
called for. Furthermore the cuts in arts funding might seem of lesser  
importance in light of what is happening, with the same brutality, in  
the fields of healthcare, social reform, education, the media and  
scientific research, among others. However it is in solidarity with  
all these realms that we raise our voices in disagreement about the  
sweeping, overreaching, and devastating broad cuts proposed.

Speaking from the position of our field, we find it essential to point  
out that what we are facing is in fact an end of an internationally  
valued cultural climate, which we dare say is unparalleled anywhere in  
the world. In and outside of the Netherlands, the art world has  
benefited from the existence of a cultural system of generosity  
towards the artistic and cultural imagination of the future, which  
today finds itself under threat of extinction. We must articulate our  
disagreement with these developments, and our resistance to them  
together, in order to prevent the following from happening:

In the fields of art and culture, the budget will shrink by 200  
million Euros; for visual art it means going from 53,3 to 31 million  
on an annual basis, taking immediate effect in 2013. Amongst other  
things, this will lead to:

• A 50 % cut in the budget for stipends and working grants for artists;
• A 50% cut in the budget of the Mondriaan Foundation, the body e.g.  
responsible for supporting international projects;
• A dramatic reduction of the number of contemporary visual arts  
institutions receiving state support (which currently include Witte de  
With, De Appel, BAK, Marres, etc.) from 11 to 6;
• A total withdrawal of all support for art magazines;
• The end of government subsidies for functions now fulfilled by the  
Manifesta Foundation, SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain, and  
the NiMK – Netherlands Media Art Institute;
• The end of all public financing of the post-academic education for  
artists offered in places such as the Ateliers, Rijksakademie voor  
beeldende kunsten, European Ceramic Work Centre, and the Jan van Eyck  
Academie.

Given this dramatic situation of the annihilation of government  
support for broad sectors of the internationally-recognized Dutch  
contemporary art field, we hope that you—our international colleagues— 
will respond fiercely and immediately to this extermination of our  
future heritage by signing this letterand returning it to us. We will  
hand over all letters to State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra.

Ann Demeester, Guus Beumer, Maria Hlavajova, Arno van Roosmalen,  
representing De Zaak Nu, various institutions and individuals in the  
contemporary visual arts all of whom are concerned about the future of  
the whole cultural field in the Netherlands.

For more info see:

www.dezaaknu.nl and
www.schadekaart.nl





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